It is a type so ubiquitous that it is even earned a fond nickname: the “Beijing bikini.”

However in a metropolis in China’s jap Shandong province, Beijing bikini lovers — and people who forgo tops altogether — have fallen out of favor with the native authorities.

On Tuesday, authorities in Jinan — a metropolis of eight.7 million — issued a discover ordering the general public to maintain their shirts on in public locations. It got here as temperatures rose to a sweltering 36C (96F) this week.

The sight of middle-aged males in China stress-free in public locations with their shirt rolled as much as expose their abdomen, or going fully topless, is a standard one all through the nation.

However Jinan authorities goal to rectify such “uncivilized habits,” in line with the discover, which added that residents had complained in regards to the “uncivilized phenomenon” which broken the picture of town.

Authorities mentioned they deliberate to crack down on “improper dressing in public locations,” which included “shirtlessness” and “wanton publicity of physique elements.” Public bickering, leaping queues, littering, and “uncivilized canine strolling” are additionally being focused beneath the discover, which is geared toward enhancing the picture of town.

However on social media, many individuals thought the laws had been overkill.

“Being shirtless cuts extra carbon emissions than turning on AC,” one commenter mentioned, whereas one other added “Let the previous individuals be free.”

Resistance to Beijing bikini

It isn’t the primary time that middle-aged Chinese language males’s proclivity for public toplessness in summer season has fallen foul of the authorities.

In Tianjin — a coastal metropolis close to Beijing — a person was fined round $7 in Could for buying shirtless in a grocery store, in line with the Tianjin police. Town launched a regulation banning going topless earlier this 12 months.In Handan, in Hebei, the province that rings the capital, the federal government is so severe about males sporting tops in public that it has launched a marketing campaign, that features an academic mini-film, which exhibits a lady introducing her boyfriend to her topless father who’s taking part in playing cards together with his mates at a public park. However the boyfriend is offended by her father’s state of undress, and pulls her apart to ask “Is that your dad? He is so uncivilized.”

After a sequence of comparable encounters, the person finally opts to put on a shirt and hat exterior.